Strike Halts Area Rail Services

NEWPORT NEWS — The national rail strike that began Wednesday shut down the Peninsula's Amtrak stations and tied up a ship in Norfolk but had limited local impact otherwise.

Railroad unions set up picket lines at the main entry to CSX Corp.'s Newport News railyard and at its car repair shop at 72nd Street.

"If they give you no choice, you know, you got no choice," said Jimmy Reynolds, a carman who has worked 17 years for CSX.

"Railroad unions are the only ones that have to go two or three years every time to get a contract," he said, as he hauled a cooler full of ice water from his truck to the picketers at 72nd Street.

Union members also picketed Norfolk Southern facilities in south Hampton Roads. For a while Wednesday, they had picket lines up at the state-owned piers in Norfolk, and unionized longshoremen refused to cross them.

But the only ship of the 24 in port that was affected was the Norwegian vessel Tampa, due to unload rubber at Norfolk Southern's Lamberts Point Docks, waterfront union and management sources said.

Shipping agent William Davis, general manager of Wilhelmsen Lines, said the Tampa was unable to unload any of its cargo. Jack W. Mace, Hampton Roads Maritime Association executive vice president, and Virginia Port Authority spokesman Richard Culbreth said no ships at the state piers were affected.

Edward Brown, international vice president of the International Longshoremen's Association, said dockworkers would honor railroad workers' picket lines.

But by afternoon, the port authority had won a court injunction limiting picketers to the railroad gates at the terminals, so dockworkers were free to come and go without crossing picket lines, Culbreth said.

Amtrak closed its Newport News station, leaving it locked and unstaffed. Although the national passenger train company was able to run trains on its Washington-to-Boston line, where it owns its own tracks, other services were halted by the strike. Stations at Lee Hall and Williamsburg also were closed.

Spokeswoman Pat Kelly said Amtrak would refund the price of unused tickets but would not arrange alternative transportation.

The Greyhound bus station fielded lots of inquiries from Amtrak passengers, especially out-of-towners wondering what to do with their return tickets, said local ticket agent Fred Warren.

But he said the number of people taking Greyhound was not up significantly.

Most people taking the train want to go to Washington and points north, and Warren said they seem to be discouraged by having to transfer buses at Richmond.

The last train down the CSX line into Newport News, a mixed freight and coal train from Richmond, arrived at about 8 a.m. yesterday, said Wayne Queen, local chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers District 76.

He said that while the 150 unionized railroad workers in Newport News were free to start picketing at midnight, "we agreed to hold off 'til seven as a courtesy to the company..."

"Nobody wants to strike," he said. "But we've had no pay raise or cost-of-living adjustment since January 1988."

CSX's big customers here are the two coal piers in the port of Newport News.

One, Dominion Terminal Associates, is just finishing up a routine break for maintenance. Its president, Howard Phillips, said he has enough coal on hand - roughly 900,000 tons - to handle the next four to five ships due in.

Pier IX Terminal Co. has about 600,000 tons, enough to keep it going until the start of next week, President Charles Whitten said. But Whitten said he's planning a break for maintenance work at the terminal soon, and may schedule some of that work during the strike, if it continues.

There were no ships at Newport News Marine Terminal on Wednesday, but waterfront executives said most of the cargo moving to and from the piers moves in trucks, anyway.

Only about 35 percent of goods at all the state piers in Hampton Roads move via rail, VPA's Culbreth said.

Most shipping companies are taking a wait-and-see stance on the strike, said Dominic Obrigkiet, vice president of Evergreen Lines in Norfolk.

He said many think the strike will be short-lived and are unsure it is worthwhile yet to take on the extra cost and complex arrangements needed to shift rail cargo onto trucks.

The four main rail unions in Newport News are the locomotive engineers; the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees; the United Transportation Union, which represents yard workers and train crews; and the Telecommunications Union, which represents car-repair and inspection workers.